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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Turkish mother’s insult at Greek orthodox faith school allocation

A Turkish Cypriot parent from London has branded the
offer of a Greek orthodox faith based free school to her son as "wholly
unacceptable" and an "insult".

Sonya Karafistan's son
was allocated a place at the St Andrew the Apostle Greek Orthodox
School in Barnet despite the family not listing it in their list of
preferences.

Members of Ms Karafistan's family lost
their lives in the civil conflict in Cyprus between Greeks and Turks
between 1963 and 1974.

The family refused
the place, but have been told by Barnet Council that her son has not
received a second round offer for any of the six secondary schools she
applied for. Their son has now been offered a place at what Ms
Karafistan describes as a 'sink school' three and a half miles away from
where the family live.

In order to secure an
appropriate secular education the family have now opted to educate their
son privately, but say this will have a serious impact of their family
budget and lifestyle choices, and should not be necessary.

Ms
Karafistan has written to the Department for Education to express anger
at how the presence of a Greek Orthodox school has limited her family's
choice of local school.

The family say they are
aware of others in their position and say a Greek Orthodox faith school
fails to meet the needs of the local community.

A
Freedom of Information response has revealed that of 18 families offered
places at this school who did not list the school in their admissions
application form (for September 2014), just 6 have accepted the offer.

Ms
Karafistan told the NSS: "We are a secular family. We do not believe
that faith has any place in education. It is an abomination that tax
payer money is being used to fund the creation of niche religious
schools that fail to serve the community as a whole."

Secularism
is fundamental to our family beliefs and morality, while we respect the
view of others and the choice they make to send their children to
religious schools, we hold the firm belief that religion has no place in
education and shouldn't be funded by the state.

"Any
religious school would offer an education inconsistent with our family
beliefs and our son's moral education to date. A Greek Orthodox school
is ideologically and culturally unacceptable to us, so to be offered it
as our local state school is very offensive to us."

St
Andrew the Apostle Greek opened in September 2013 as a free school, and
is the first state funded secondary Greek Orthodox school in Britain.
The school was been established jointly by Russell Education Trust, the
Greek Orthodox Church and the Classical Education Trust.

The school says its ethos is based on Christian beliefs of the Orthodox Church but is open to families of all faiths and none.

In
other parts of the country, parents contacting the National Secular
Society have been angered by the allocation of places at Christian,
Jewish, Sikh and Hindu schools that have an ethos that runs counter to
their own religious or philosophical convictions.

Stephen
Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "The Government claims that most
free schools are in areas in need of school places, but there are
serious questions as to whether faith based schools adequately meet the
needs of local parents who don't share the faith character of the
school.

"With a finite number of places available, a
state education system made up of schools delineated along religious
lines is clearly inefficient and impractical. It also spells trouble for
social cohesion, and makes it difficult to ensure all parents' beliefs
are equally respected during their children's education.

"The
best way to ensure everyone's rights are protected is to have truly
inclusive secular schools that are equally welcoming to pupils
regardless of their religion or belief background. A religious
upbringing should be the responsibility of parents that want that, not
the role of the state."